“You are incorrigible and I’m sure I shouldn’t even be talking to you. I’d say that you’re the kind of woman my mother warned me about.”
The brunette leaned in close again. “I’d say that your mother was a very smart woman. No, really, come on. At least let me take you out on the town. It’s a beautiful night.”
“I don’t even know your name.” “BJ Warren.” She held out her hand.
“Hobie Allen,” the auburn-haired woman responded. She shook the offered hand.
“There, now we’re properly introduced. What do you say?” Hobie could hardly hear herself speak over the screaming
of the voice in the back of her mind. “All right, I’ll go out with you.”
“You won’t be sorry.”
“You do know that I have no intention of sleeping with you, though,” Hobie said.
BJ smiled.
“I have to insist on a verbal acknowledgment of that fact.” BJ paused. “I acknowledge that at this moment, you firmly believe that to be true.”
Hobie shook her head. She couldn’t understand why she was agreeing to this. It was completely opposite to the way she lived her life. “You truly are something else.”
“I knew you’d come around to my way of thinking.” The women stood, and BJ had to still herself momentarily to shake the cobwebs from her brain.
“Tell me you’re not driving,” Hobie said. “There are three rules I always adhere to.” “And they are?”
“I always pay my taxes by April fifteenth, I never have unprotected sex with someone I don’t know, and I never drink and drive.”
“You’re a poster child for the American way.”
“One does what one can,” BJ said with a grin.
They walked out of the restaurant and Hobie was surprised that BJ wasn’t tripping all over herself. Either she’d had a great deal of experience functioning while inebriated or the alcohol hadn’t affected her as much as Hobie thought. The air was much chillier than it had been earlier when Hobie walked to the restaurant. She rubbed her hands across the goose bumps on her arms.
“Would you mind if I went back to my hotel room for a jacket?” Hobie asked.
“Not at all, I’m sorry. Where are you staying?”
Hobie pointed to the building they were standing next to. “Well, that’s convenient, isn’t it?”
“Let me ask you something,” Hobie began as they entered the brightly lit lobby. “You act as though you know I don’t live here.”
BJ shrugged. “You have that tourist look about you. Besides, not many native Chicagoans have that good of a tan in April.”
“Oh. Um, why don’t you wait down here and I’ll be right back?”
“Why don’t I come up with you?” “I’ll just be a sec.”
“And you’re afraid I’m going to accost you in the elevator.” “No, I didn’t say that.”
“Maybe you’re just afraid that you can’t resist me after all.” “I don’t see that happening.”
BJ made a few clucking noises under her breath. It was the proverbial last straw.
“I am not chicken! Oh, okay. Come on.” “What a charming offer.”
Hobie turned to glare at BJ, who quickly raised her hands. “Just kidding,” she said.
To Hobie, the silence in the elevator was deafening. She nervously cleared her throat as she wondered once again why she was doing this. “In the restaurant, how did you know I was gay?” The question had nagged her from the start.
“I didn’t,” BJ said. She leaned against the wall and fixed a gaze on Hobie that she felt all the way to her toes.
Either this woman has all the confidence in the world or she’s really that good, Hobie thought. She let herself become lost in the other woman’s penetrating gaze. It was hypnotizing, and Hobie felt as if she would do just about anything the woman asked while she stared at her like that.
“Oh,” Hobie said softly. The elevator doors opened before she could pursue that line of thought any further.
Once inside the room, Hobie retrieved the white linen jacket that went with her skirt. “Okay, ready to roll.”
“Do you mind if I use your bathroom?” BJ smiled wearily at Hobie.
“Of course not, it’s right through there. Do you feel okay?” “Sure, I won’t be a minute.”
Hobie stood before the window looking out onto the moonlit landscape of Chicago. She heard the water running in the bathroom and wondered again what she was doing in her hotel room with a drunken stranger. I just want the company, that’s all. I mean, I made it clear that I’m not going any further than having a few drinks. Oh, good Lord, Hobie, don’t lie, especially to yourself. You know damn well that if she looks at you one more time like she did in that elevator, you’re going to forget your resolve. You’re going to forget who you are and where you come from, and you’re going to jump into bed with her. There’s only one answer. I have to call this off and send her on her way, plain and simple.
“Breathtaking view.”
Hobie felt warm breath along the edge of her right ear and she hoped the shiver that ran across her skin wasn’t noticeable. “Um, yes. The city’s beautiful at night.”
“That wasn’t the view I was talking about.”
Fingertips slid along the skin of Hobie’s arms. She closed her eyes to the pleasing sensation and realized just how long it had been since anyone had touched her in that way. Soft lips on the back of her neck snapped her mind back to reality.
She spun around in BJ’s arms and stopped her as she leaned in to claim Hobie’s lips in a kiss. Hobie pushed against her chest with both hands.
“Oh, no, you don’t. This is exactly what I don’t need,” Hobie protested. She escaped to the other side of the room.
“Did that sound as unconvincing to you as it did to me?” BJ’s voice flowed across Hobie’s senses like warm honey. BJ slowly made her way across the room. Hobie looked up with big green eyes that appeared spellbound. “Because, Hobie, I think deep down that you think this is exactly what you need.”
Hobie suspected that was the same phrase BJ used all the time. Afew of the words might change now and again, but she had the feeling that the sentiment always reeled them in. BJ smiled in a way that Hobie suspected no woman resisted for long before she leaned in once more, but this time, Hobie didn’t stop her. Hobie looked like a small frightened rabbit, too afraid to run and too frightened not to.
BJ brushed her lips against Hobie’s, gently at first.
The strangled moan that came from Hobie’s throat was a dead giveaway. She slipped her arms around BJ’s neck and they shared a kiss unlike anything either of them had ever experienced.
Asound like sheer delight escaped BJ’s lips as the two broke apart for air. Seconds later, Hobie tangled her fingers in BJ’s short dark hair and drew her down for another passionate kiss. BJ slipped her hands under Hobie’s jacket and pulled her closer.
“Good God, that was—I mean—where did you learn to kiss like that?” BJ stammered breathlessly when they once again parted for breath.
The sound of BJ’s voice cut directly through Hobie’s libidinous haze. “What in the hell am I doing?” She tried to take a step back, but BJ still held her tightly in her arms.